1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for managing files in a file management apparatus with a dedicated user interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
With widespread use of information equipments, such as personal computers (PCs), digital cameras, and cell-phones, documents and images are increasingly used in computerized format (hereinafter, referred to as “file” as appropriate). Such files are managed by the information equipments such that a user can search for files as appropriate by operating the information equipments.
One technique of managing files is to use a tree structure as employed in WINDOWS (registered trademark) that runs as operating system (OS) in typical PCs. The tree structure is a hierarchical structure constituted of folders, in which files are managed with respect to each folder. With this configuration, a user can retrieve a desired file by searching the folders by top-down search or bottom-up search.
Another technique of managing files is to display files and folders by using thumbnail images or icon images, so that the files and the folders can be managed intuitively. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-268295 discloses a conventional user interface that enables a user to visually recognize a relation between thumbnail images, in conjunction with scroll operation by the user. Specifically, icon images of folders that are in the upper layer are displayed in an upper-layer display area of a screen from the left to the right with respect to the screen. Likewise, thumbnail images of files stored in a folder displayed in a specified position among the folders are displayed in a lower-layer display area along a substantially “<” line such that a thumbnail image positioned at a bend of the line is relatively enlarged.
However, in the conventional technology, files are managed with respect to each folder nested in a tree structure. Therefore, more operation is required to access files stored in a folder in a lower layer. Furthermore, a folder corresponding to one node and another folder corresponding to another node are provided in a different layer in the same tree structure. Therefore, it is difficult to intuitively recognize a relation between the folders.